Goodman & Nekvasil P.A., May Recover Investor Losses | Manuel Angel Mejia Gomez (Manuel Gomez) Suspended from Securities Industry and Terminated by Popular Securities, LLC
From 2006 until Manuel Gomez’ termination in January 2015, Manuel Gomez worked for Popular Securities, LLC. According to FINRA’s records, Manuel Gomez was terminated by Popular Securities, LLC on January 17, 2015. Popular Securities, LLC reported to FINRA that Manuel Gomez was accused of unauthorized trading in an effort to make commissions.
Subsequent to Manuel Gomez’ termination by Popular Securities, LLC, FINRA investigated Manuel Gomez and brought a disciplinary action against Manuel Gomez. Manuel Gomez was suspended for 3 months from the securities and investment banking industry and fined $15,000 on December 13, 2016. FINRA reports that Manuel Gomez consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that Manuel Gomez executed unauthorized transactions in a customer’s account.
The findings stated that after the customer complained, Manuel Gomez’ member firm cancelled the transactions, and Manuel Gomez reimbursed the firm for the losses of approximately $15,000 that resulted from the cancellation of the transactions. The findings also stated that Manuel Gomez exercised discretionary authority in customers’ accounts. First, according to FINRA, on multiple occasions, Manuel Gomez liquidated securities in the account of a customer in order to meet the customer’s cash flow obligations. According to FINRA, Manuel Gomez did not get authorization from the customer to liquidate the specific securities that were selected for liquidation. According to FINRA, Manuel Gomez was told by the customer’s authorized representative that a specific bond needed to be liquidated in order to meet cash flow obligations. According to FINRA, instead of following the customer’s instructions to liquidate that bond, Manuel Gomez consulted with a different employee of the customer, who was not authorized to make trading decisions on the customer’s account, about his concerns over the customer’s potential losses from the liquidation of the bond, and then use discretion to liquidate a different security on the instruction of the unauthorized employee of the customer. According to FINRA, Manuel Gomez also engaged in discretionary trading in the account of another customer when Manuel Gomez liquidated mutual funds and purchased new mutual funds in that customer’s account using discretion. Finally, according to FINRA, Manuel Gomez sold a mutual fund and purchased a new mutual fund in the account of another customer using discretion on the instruction of the customer’s father, who was not authorized to direct trading in the customer’s account. According to FINRA, Manuel Gomez did not obtain written authorization from any of the customers to exercise discretion in their accounts and his firm did not approve the accounts in writing as discretionary accounts.
FINRA also reports that 2 complaints were filed involving Manuel Gomez’ conduct with Popular Securities, LLC were settled.
If you lost any money on investments with Manuel Gomez, you may be able to recover your losses from Popular Securities, LLC. This is because Popular Securities, LLC had a duty to supervise Manuel Gomez.
If you lost money on investments with Manuel Gomez and believe that the investments may have been unsuitable or otherwise improper for you, we would like to discuss the possibility of your retaining our firm to represent you in an arbitration action against Popular Securities, LLC concerning Manuel Gomez’ conduct. There is no charge for an evaluation of your case. Further, we handle our cases on a contingency fee basis. This means that unless we recover money for you, we charge no attorney’s fee. Unless you recover any money, you pay us nothing, not even the costs and expenses which the firm will advance on your behalf.
Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A. has recovered approximately $180 million on behalf of victimized investors. If you lost money on investments with Manuel Gomez and would like your case evaluated by a securities attorney (again, there is no charge for an evaluation and all cases are handled on a purely contingency fee basis), please contact us.